This invention relates to tube handling apparatus and more particularly to a tube handling apparatus especially suited for handling short, remnant pieces of tubing.
Tubing is commonly fed into a tube cutting apparatus where standardized lengths of tubing are successively cut into shorter lengths of tubing by successive actuation of the cutting apparatus. In a typical tube handling apparatus of this type, the tubing is fed along a tube feed path by feed rollers or the like and the tubing is held between clamping jaws during the severing operation. After completion of the severing operation, the jaws are moved transversely outwardly to a released position and the feed mechanism is actuated to advance the tubing by a predetermined amount corresponding to the length of the desired cut length, whereafter the tubing is stopped and the jaws moved into clamping position for the next cut. Whereas this type of tube handling apparatus is generally satisfactory, problems arise with respect to the tube remnant remaining after the last full length of tubing has been severed from the original tube. Specifically, this remnant, following separation of the jaws after the last full length cut, is often disassociated from any of the feeding or alignment mechanism associated with the tube handling apparatus with the result that it becomes misaligned with respect to the tube axis, and/or falls into the associated machinery, with consequent damage to the cutting apparatus or interference with the feeding of the next standardized length of tubing to the cutting apparatus.